The Irish-owned Doyle Collection will open the largest townhouse hotel suite in London later this month in a €500,000 expansion of its four-star Kensington Hotel.
The three-bedroom suite measures 180sq m (1,920sq ft) and will cost up to £2,700 a night to hire. It has been designed to cater for wealthy visitors to London, particularly Arab families from the Gulf states, who tend to prefer staying in large suites when visiting the city.
The suite has been developed in a neighbouring property that was previously used as a Barclays Bank. The building was owned by the Irish hotel chain, which has now decided to incorporate it into its 149-bedroom Kensington Hotel.
Designed by Denis Looby of Dublin-based Sheehan and Barry Architects, the suite has been built as three interconnecting suites that can be sold separately by the hotel chain depending on demand levels.
Each bedroom has its own ensuite bathroom facilities. The overall space includes a living room, dressing area and a separate guest cloakroom with the addition of a separate dining room when configured as a three-bedroom suite.
The spaces are linked through a series of tall French doors on to a first floor balcony. The ceilings are four metres high with pale parquet floors. Features including a custom-designed cocktail cabinet and a 1930s Murano chandelier.
First letting
Work on the suite began last autumn and was completed at the end of December. It will be used for the first time later this month.
It is the first major enhancement to the Kensington Hotel since its reopening in 2009.
The Doyle Collection's chief executive, Pat King, said the suite would offer a "versatile space" that would "appeal to a variety of guests".
“Executives choose Doyle Collection’s suites as they offer much better recognition, service and value when compared to the price of standard rooms available in big brand hotels,” he said.
“In addition to this, leisure travellers, embassy dignitaries and guests from the entertainment sector will seek to maximise the new suite either as a one-room, two-room or the entire three-bedroom 180sq m space, from which they can work, entertain or just relax in privacy.”
In addition to its expansion in Kensington, the Doyle Collection launched a new website in December that is suitable for viewing on tablets and other mobile devices. It is also now offering free wifi internet coverage in all of its hotels.
Accounts
Latest accounts for Doyle Hotels (Holdings) Ltd show that it made a pretax profit of €10.7 million in 2012 compared with a loss of €2.6 million in the previous year.
Its turnover rose by 13.5 per cent to €126.5 million while its net debt reduced by €13.7 million to €288.8 million.
The company has since completed a refinancing of its debts out to 2017 and sold three of its US hotels – The Back Bay in Boston, and the Normandy and the Courtyard by Marriott in Washington. It now comprises eight hotels in Dublin, Cork, London, Bristol and Washington.
